Sunday, September 25, 2011

Money earned by illicit red sandalwood trade and hooliganism have been diverted into share-market to make the money white. Different groups are engaged in the laundering process, said Rajendra Khetan, a lawmaker and businessmen. Speaking at a parliamentarian Public Accounts Committee under Legislature Parliament, he said that the vicious circle of money laundering has emerged to cheat revenue and wash black money to white. "Money earned from illegal sources is deposited in banks which later invested in share and ultimately that money used to strengthen illegal business," he said.

Banks should follow certain customer identification procedure for opening of accounts and monitoring transactions to stop the money laundering process, he said. The Nepal Rastra Bank should introduce the Know Your Customer (KYC) guidelines at the earliest, he added. "The KYC guideline will help end money laundering by illegal traders." In the programme, officials from Nepal Rastra Bank pledged to abide by the directives which will be received from the parliamentarian committee. "Controlling illegal money from deposit is challenging," deputy governor at the central bank Gopal Kafle said, adding that the central bank will initiate the process to control such trends.

"The central bank is putting its effort to control money laundering," he said. Currently, Financial Information Unit under the central bank is carrying out activities to curb money laundering. Financial Information Unit is an agency responsible for receiving, processing, analysing and disseminating financial information and intelligence on suspected money laundering and terrorist financing activities, deputy governor Kafle said. The central bank is committed to end money laundering by strengthening its monitoring capacity, he pledged.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Hi friends, you guys must have heard that Nepal Telecom is bringing iPhone 4 (8GB) to Nepal on contract. It seems to me interesting since I am an iphone developer and most of my friends are also excited about having iphones with cheap affordable price.

NTC and Apple Agreement

Once, NTC has tried to bring Blackberry Mobile to Nepal with it BES server integrated with ntc Carrier. But it failed due to lack of our carrier security and probably poor quality of signal strength of Nepal Telecom at that time.

After the failed attempt to bring Blackberry Mobile, largest telecommunication company of Nepal, NTC (Nepal Telecom Authority) is planning to introduce iPhone 4 (8GB) for Rs15000 (200$). According to the source, Apple and NTC have already signed the agreement for this process and it may be available within this year if everything goes fine.

Since we know that 16GB and 32GB iPhone are at high price, iPhone 4 with 8GB memory will be introduced by NTC for its customers. Some weeks ago Apple have announced that they will be introducing iPhone with less memory for promoting developing countries like Nepal to increase its market share.

According to NTC Plan, to get an iPhone , subscriber have to sign a 2year contract with NTC and pay Rs15000 to get iPhone. NTC will be selling this iPhone after locking the "NTC" carrier within the device. This scheme is most popular on different countries like in USA, where AT&T, Verizon sells carrier locked iphones on 2 year contract basis to their costumers.

Currently the price of iPhone 4 16GB is Rs55000+ in Nepali market, Rs 15000 for iPhone its not only cool but awesome. I am looking forward for development of Apple product and iOS in Nepal.

Since Apple iphone is pretty cool gadgets for youngsters and business people it will definitely take great market share. I will be the first one to have it as soon as it arrives.

Challenges for NTC

The iphone is very sophisticated smart phone which uses high speed internet and great carrier services. In short, to maintain the quality standard with smart phone, the carrier service and other services like 3G, GPRS, etc also should be great and meet the standard. Following might be challenges for NTC:

Enhance the Carrier strength even in the time of LoadShedding. (I hate "Error In Connection" Message by the way)

Provide high speed internet service, 3G and GPRS all over the country (not only inside Ring Road area). ( At Least must be competitive with NCell customers in terms of both data plan and service plan).

These are some basic feedback for NTC to enhance its service. If you guys have any feel free to add one in comment. I will add them in list.

Thanks for reading and happy sharing. Hope within a year, all interested iPhone fans would be using iPhone for entertainment and calls.